“You dare spread rumors about our pharmacy!”
In the morning inn, before any guests arrived, an angry thief stormed in.
The pharmacy owner was red with rage. At this rate, he might collapse from high blood pressure.
“Rumors? What rumors do you speak of?”
I casually sipped my tea and asked with a mischievous expression.
“I know everything! Don’t pretend you don’t!”
“All I know about your pharmacy is that you’re selling cheap Central Plains ginseng disguised as Joseon ginseng and that you gobbled up the elixir I asked you to prepare. Nothing more.”
“No! That can’t be!”
Maybe it was all true; the pharmacy owner couldn’t confirm or deny it.
“Since I know both facts, they’re not rumors. So why are you here throwing a fit?”
“Your black-haired punks have been spreading unspeakable words about our pharmacy! Accusations of mixing fake medicine! That expensive medicine is only put in tiny amounts! That you mix shit into the medicine and so on!”
“There’s a saying in Joseon: ‘No smoke without fire.’ Isn’t it just that your past tricks have finally come to light?”
Put nicely, it’s a business strategy. Put negatively, it’s trickery.
While my mischievous rumors might not have been the worst, it was true that the pharmacy had been up to something shady.
“That never happened!”
“As if you haven’t stolen the elixir from the acupuncture center?”
I smirked, raising one corner of my mouth.
“Ugh! Are you not even going to try fixing this situation?!”
“Just like you don’t know where the ginseng candy went, I have no idea who started these pharmacy rumors.”
Do you really think yelling is going to solve anything?
When you can’t sort out your mess, you have to negotiate. And to negotiate, you need to play your cards right. So where do you think you’re going with threats?
I turned my gaze out the window and took another sip of tea, as if I didn’t want to talk anymore.
“Who do you think you are, talking about us barbarians like that!”
The pharmacy owner finally crossed the line with my attitude.
“What?”
“What did that guy just say to the club leader?”
“Do you know where this is?!”
All the Joseon people in the inn reacted to the mention of “barbarian.”
“Wha-what? The black-haired folks from Wuhan are all gathered here. What’s happening?”
Right. This is indeed the heart of the Joseon people in Wuhan.
The pharmacy owner seemed flustered and took a step back.
“Close the door! It seems you don’t grasp the situation yet.”
Where do you think you’re running?
“Yes!”
“Is it a fight? I want in too!”
“Gasp!”
“B-back away!”
The guards, startled, hurried to protect the pharmacy owner.
“You think I’d bow my head in fear just hearing the word barbarian?”
I looked at the pharmacy owner with a blank expression.
The inn was boiling with anger. The pharmacy owner’s face grew more and more red, then took on a pale hue.
I could turn you into mush anytime. You better speak carefully from now on.
Seeing the nervous gulp from the pharmacy owner made me chuckle inwardly, and I nodded, allowing him to speak.
“Uh, that, that is Kang, the club leader…”
“Are you looking for the barbarian club leader?”
“I-I misspoke! Sometimes people get confused!”
“If you were good at distinguishing the front from the back, you wouldn’t have gotten into this mess.”
“I don’t know what rumors you heard, but it’s all a misunderstanding! I came here to clear things up!”
The pharmacy owner still seemed to think he was wronged, striking his chest as he spoke.
I rolled my eyes at his pathetic display and put my tea cup down, looking at him with no interest.
“That day… there were no carriages heading towards the acupuncture center.”
“…!”
The pharmacy owner’s eyes widened in shock.
“If you want to apologize, it’s customary to bring a gift. Whether I forgive you or not will depend on seeing a gift in front of me. You may leave now, guest!”
“Kang, the club leader! No! Please listen to me! Kang, the club leader!”
Eventually, the pharmacy owner was chased out of the inn without any more words.
—————-
“This really works, doesn’t it?”
In the inn’s office, Im Ha-yeon said, impressed.
“A merchant who loses their credibility loses value in the marketplace.”
“It’s not like there haven’t been malicious rumors over decades of doing business, but I didn’t expect him to freak out like this.”
“It must be the first time the whole neighborhood is gossiping about him. Up until now, he might have employed some tactics while being cautious. But if it’s a coordinated attack, the story changes.”
“I never imagined rumors could spread like wildfire just because Joseon folks are gossiping.”
“People always feel wronged when they’re sick. But add in that they paid for it; how wronged must he feel? Malicious rumors spread easily, and if there’s one, it can easily spiral out of control.”
I once saw local hospitals bickering with each other.
One hospital hung posters claiming the other was spreading malicious rumors, fighting like crazy. I first learned then that in a cutthroat competitive society, hospitals can bleed in service.
Funny part is, the winner wasn’t either of the two hospitals that had tarnished their images, but rather a new third hospital that opened amidst all the chaos.
“Should we show the elixir?”
“A person who’s been in business for long knows just how terrifying rumors can be.”
They’re sensitive to gossip because anything about overpriced medicine or excessive treatments can effortlessly drive away customers in an instant.
“It won’t take long to get it back. I’m off to train my Nine Black Qi Hands now.”
“Wait.”
I called Im Ha-yeon, who was about to leave the office.
“What?”
“I’m not done here.”
I said, wearing a mischievous smile all over my face.
“What scheme are you plotting this time?”
“Haha, let’s prepare one more thing.”
—————–
“Here’s the ginseng candy.”
It was a few days later when the pharmacy owner brought the box containing the elixir.
“Is it?”
“…Yes.”
“Ha. So the ginseng candy just dropped down from the heavens, did it?”
Who does the thief think he is, being so proud.
“One of the staff made a mistake…”
The pharmacy owner mumbled, his face turning beet red out of embarrassment.
“Still calling it a mistake, huh? Send it back.”
Clearly in a daze.
“I was too greedy! I thought there was enough quantity that it wouldn’t be noticed, so I tried one, and my body felt so hot… Well, I ended up enjoying some quality time with my concubine for the first time in ages, and it felt as if I was decades younger.”
The pharmacy owner quickly bowed his head in apology.
Actually, Korean ginseng had been used historically as an aphrodisiac by emperors, so the effects didn’t need mentioning.
“Before you apologize to me, it seems you need to apologize to someone else first.”
I said, casting a cold glance at the acupuncturist standing to the side.
The pharmacy owner gasped, clearly not expecting to see him there, and then repeatedly bowed his head again.
“I’m sorry! I’ll pay you separately for the loss. For the elixir consumed, I will pay double the selling price as an apology.”
“…”
The acupuncturist remained unresponsive.
“Shouldn’t you check how much medicine is missing first?”
“Yes, club leader.”
“No, didn’t you come to apologize? Are you not going to count the amount of medicine? Looks like about five pence were used.”
The pharmacy owner replied to me as if he couldn’t believe his own ears. When the acupuncturist opened the box, there was indeed a little empty space, just as the pharmacy owner said.
Sure. They must’ve counted well if they intended to return it.
But did they really count it accurately?
“…Huh? This! Fake medicine is mixed in!”
The acupuncturist exclaimed, handing me the elixir in shock.
“I knew this would happen. Looks like the dog simply can’t be reformed.”
The elixir’s packaging was torn, and instead of the supposed crimson candy, there was a muddy-looking pill inside.
“No, that can’t be!”
Oh, but it can.
Seeing the panicked expression on the pharmacy owner’s face, I chuckled inwardly while recalling my conversation with Im Ha-yeon.
一 “Are you asking me to steal ginseng candy? Weren’t you the one who told me not to steal last time?”
一 “Everything has its time, right? This time, we’ll do it my way.”
一 “What’s the plan?”
一 “A good old switcheroo, Joseon market style.”
“Why is the medicine inside the ginseng candy package switched?”
“Apparently, one of the wives and the concubines had been taking them daily.”
What are you going to do now? I interrogated the pharmacy owner in a disappointed voice.
“This wasn’t me! There’s no way I’d pull such a stunt after coming here to apologize!”
I bet you think that’s absurd. But we are the victims. They are the perpetrators. If the perpetrator feels wronged, the negotiations go nowhere.
We’ll maximize our loss, and the victim’s grievance will be deflected onto someone else.
“One of your staff must have been up to no good.”
“Impossible! That guy? Or that woman…?”
“You’ve got several suspicious characters in mind, it seems.”
A lot of hands must have been involved in producing that medicine.
Starting with the pharmacy owner who broke trust and hid the elixir. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone else fiddled with it too.
Even if someone was present, how could they imagine that a thief would steal something they were hiding so well?
“This… this can’t be happening…”
“Who’s the one who did something that shouldn’t be done yet is now acting wronged? Guys, unwrap everything and check one by one.”
“Yes, club leader!”
The other staff waiting in the office carefully started to unwrap the packages.
“About half of it is fake medicine.”
I told them to be careful since they can inspect ahead of time, but I didn’t expect half of it to have been switched. Even though I instructed it, they were able to pull off a switcheroo on the level of a market vendor.
Truly, the Shadowless Thief lives up to its name.
“What will you do about it?”
“This can’t be! This can’t be!”
“If you want this resolved quietly, you’ll have to pay four times the selling price of the elixir, not just double.”
“Y-you want me to pay that much?”
This precious elixir made from rare Joseon ginseng. And with the expensive ingredients mixed in sugar used as medicine, the cost on its own is already substantial.
Asking for four times the selling price, rather than the cost, is burdensome even for a pharmacy.
“Well? Do you want to end things here?”
I warned him while glancing at the box containing the elixir with indifference.
Since he confessed to stealing, he had no way out. The rumor that he misappropriated valuable ginseng would spread all over Wuhan.
A merchant who loses their credibility cannot stand in the marketplace. The pharmacy owner surely knows that.
“…”
“You’re leaving? Open the door for him.”
“I… I admit defeat. I’ll pay four times the price of the medicine.”
The pharmacy owner dropped his shoulders in defeat.
“That’ll do.”
“What about the rumors…? Ugh!”
When I spilled the tea that was in my cup right before the pharmacy owner’s eyes, he jumped back in shock.
What are you doing; the look in his eyes was incredulous. I showed him the inside of the empty cup and spoke.
“The spilled water here represents the trust you flushed away due to your greed.”
“…”
Did I spill this water?
Or was it the trust that was in the cup that got poured out by someone else?
Can you pick up the spilled water again? The pharmacy owner couldn’t say a word.
“I’ll do some cleanup, but you should gradually rebuild your trust.”
I had no intention of covering everything up. Just reducing malicious rumors and mixing rumors with rumors.
Then the pharmacy owner, this time, bowed deeply in apology and began to speak to me.
“I’m sorry! I’m truly sorry! My precious concubine recently became pregnant. Although I employed the wrong methods, I want to be a father without shame to my late child. I will strive to…”
Huh?
Oh.
Hold on a moment.
It seems like someone else is enjoying the effects of the ginseng.
I hid my surprise and glanced towards a corner. There, a delivery man with a twinge of mischief was fidgeting nervously.
No way, right?
Perhaps it was due to the employees who knew everything?
While the pharmacy owner handed over the receipt indicating four times the price of the medicine to the acupuncturist, an awkward silence fell over the office.
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